The NOV gene, also known as CCN3, encodes a secreted, extracellular matrix (ECM) associated signaling protein. This biological function implicates NOV as an important gene in cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, differentiation, and survival. The expression pattern on the Allen Brain Atlas data indicates that this gene is in the superficial, midlevel and deep cortex, piriform cortex and hippocampal CA1 and in the basal and lateral nuclei of amygdala. In select sagittal sections, the continuum between hippocampal CA1 region into amygdaloid-hippocampal region and posteriomedial cortical amygdala is shown, and olfactory nuclei/bulb. Endogenous NOV expression has been observed in the adult rat cerebral cortex and amygdala (Su et al. 2001).
There is a need for characterized human NOV promoters for gene expression, for instance in human gene therapy applications. It is in particular useful to identify small promoter elements that are sufficient to drive expression in certain cell types, for instance retinal cells or neurons in the brain. Such small promoter elements, or “mini-promoters” are particularly useful in certain applications, for instance they are more amenable to insertion into viral vectors used in gene therapy applications.